True, but that's only part of the reason. As you all know I have anger management
issues; since I am a tiny weakling I've always had trouble with confrontation
so I spend a lot of time fantasizing about Very Bad Things happening to people
who mess with me.

I don't know about New York, but in California if you have not had any tickets
in the past 18 months, and your ticket is classified as an "infraction" and
is not DUI/DWI you are eligible to attend traffic school (many are online
and those are acceptable). After completing traffic school, the school will
notify your State DMV and the ticket will be "invisible" to your insurance
company and your rates will *not* increase.

Here in CA you get to do this once every 18 months.

Again, "your mileage may vary" and I have NO idea if this is even possible
in NY, but it is certainly worth exploring.

You probably will have to plead guilty to the ticket and
pay the fine, but it does save you the insurance premium hike (which in most
states "sticks around" for 3 years after the date of conviction/plea).

**Note: In CA you can get as many tickets as your wallet and lifestyle can
withstand. You get to "eliminate" one every 18 months. If you are normally
a good driver and get nabbed by "the typical asshole cop" this saves your
skin. If you are "Joe Speed-Racer" you deserve what you got.

I for one would like to see "the typical asshole cop" get mowed down by "Joe
Speed-Racer" the next time he steps out of his patrol vehicle. (Remember:
not a lot of people survive in IG's Utopia.)

There is a traffic school point reduction program in NY, and that may end
up becoming part of the package. Because the stakes are high in this case
I have decided to outsource the pleading of this case to an attorney who will
represent me in court using whatever strategy he deems appropriate for the
situation.

My perception of police in general has always been positive. It's a shame
this asshole ruined that. He needs to be relocated to some unstable middle-east
nation where his assholery will be handled in an appropriate fashion.

attorney who will represent me in court using whatever strategy he
deems appropriate for the situation.

If you were 'clocked' by police radar ("radiopositioning equipment") MAKE
SURE that your attorney is completely conversant in how to do pre-trial discovery.
You need:

1. a certified copy of the FCC license covering the law enforcement agency
that issued the citation
2. a certified copy of the inventory of radiopositioning equipment on hand
on the day of your citation.

If #1 is less than #2 then it is the obligation of the Prosecution to ***prove***
that the radar unit used by the cop in question is one of the
LICENSED units covered by the FCC license. The FCC does NOT license by serial
number or model, only by "total number of units." Thus is it absolutely impossible
for the prosecutor to meet his burden of proof, and the case must be dismissed.

3. make sure you have a record of the time of day/night, temperature, humidity
and ambient weather conditions (clear, cloudy, drizzle, rain, whatever). This
information is essential should it be necessary for you to mount a defense
based on the known technical shortcomings of microwave-based radiopositioning
to accurately determine speeds in less than ideal weather conditions. Ground
scatter, temperature inversion(s), and the presence of other moving objects
are all sources of error, all of which lead to introducing "reasonable doubt"
which is all that need be done to lead to a verdict of not guilty. Remember,
traffic court is ****criminal court****
and must follow all the rules of evidence, etc. and offer the defendant (you)
all the constitutional protections.

4. the exact radar "gun" the cop used to "clock" you must under law be periodically
calibrated. Here in CA it is once in every 48 hours. Calibration is a simple
process and is easy to do, but it is fun to put the cop on the stand and ask
him/her about it, "salting" the examination with lots of Physics Traps to
make the cop look incompetent, which introduces doubt into the accuracy of
the calibration, which introduces doubt into the validity of the only evidence
against you (the radar reading) and leads to a dismissal.

So, as you can hopefully see, "Joe Lawyer" is absolutely NOT good enough.
You need a radar specialist. You will need an expert witness. Put the right
lawyer and the right expert in that courtroom and YOU WILL PREVAIL.

In MA and CT, if you "appeal" the ticket and the officer does not show up to defend, the ticket is expunged (guilty or not). Most of the time (at least in MA and CT), the officers don't show up because it's a PIA and they have to go off-radio and sit in the courthouse until their ticket comes up for review. Would imagine NY has something similar.

That is the case here as well. It is my understanding that the law firm that
is representing me will likely make use of a strategy involving postponing
the hearing as many times as they are allowed to, increasing the likelihood
that the asshole cop will either not show up or will be in poorer shape to
argue his (wrong) side of the story.